Tay Son Dynasty - Defeat of Manchu Qing

Defeat of Manchu Qing

A few months later, realising that his hope of retaining power had gone, the Lê Emperor fled north to the Qing Empire, where he formally petitioned the Qing Emperor Qianlong (Vietnamese:Càn Long) for aid. Qianlong agreed to restore Lê Chiêu Thống to power, and so in 1788, a large Qing army marched south into Vietnam and captured the capital Thăng Long.

Nguyễn Huệ gathered a new army and prepared to fight the Qing army. He addressed his troops before the battle saying:

The Qing have invaded our country and occupied the capital city, Thăng Long. In our history, the Trưng Sisters fought against the Han, Đinh Tiên Hoàng against the Song, Trần Hưng Đạo against the Mongol Yuan, and Lê Lợi against the Ming. These heroes did not resign themselves to standing by and seeing the invaders plunder our country; they inspired the people to fight for a just cause and drive out the aggressors... The Qing, forgetting what happened to the Song, Yuan and Ming, have invaded our country. We are going to drive them out of our territory.

In a surprise attack, while the Qing army was celebrating the Lunar New Year, Nguyễn Huệ's army defeated them at the Battle of Đống Đa and forced them, along with Lê Chiêu Thống, to flee to the Qing-controlled China. Nguyễn Huệ and his army chased the defeated army of the Qing over the China borders and captured many provinces of the Qing.